Slice of Life
by KatiKat
Summary: This story has no beginning and no end. It's just one moment in the life of Treize and Wufei. It's sad, but there is always hope. Alternate Universe.


Slice of Life 

by Katikat

"What is it today, Wufei?" Doctor Sally Po asked as she took the young man's slender arm in her hands and swabbed the crook of his elbow with disinfection. "Rachmaninov again?"

The Chinese man smiled at her shyly, his pale, gaunt face lightening up a bit. "Beethoven," he answered and kept unwinding the tiny headphones from around the small mp3 player in his lap with his free hand. "Treize insisted that if someone could stop the nausea, it was Beethoven and his sonatas."

Sally chuckled. "Well, the man's the expert, right?" She took the new sterile needle the nurse handed her, then inserted it swiftly, painlessly into the almost invisible blue vein under his skin. As the therapy progressed, it was more and more difficult to find the veins under the young man's pricked, bruised skin. That was why she took this task upon herself instead leaving it to the nurses as she usually did. That, and the fact that she truly liked the Chinese man.

As she adjusted the drip and checked the lines, her eyes were invariably drawn to her favorite patient. Wufei half sat, half lay in the comfortable padded chair, his right arm propped on the pillow so that the lines wouldn't tangle. Even in his gauntness, with a pale face and dark circles that gave his almond shaped eyes a permanent bruised look, with a bald head, covered with a silk shawl, he still looked handsome and attractive. But her heart couldn't help but clench painfully.

This slim being with bird-like frailty didn't resemble Wufei's old self in anything at all. When he first came to her clinic, he was a sturdy, well muscled youth with sun tanned skin and a fiery look in his dark eyes. He was prepared to fight this sickness and not give up, to win and live. But over the next six months full of never ending pain and nausea, she was forced to watch the fire ebb from his heart. She saw resignation replace his thirst for life. She feared that he was slipping through her fingers like sand, one grain for each passing day. Doctor or not, she would never get used to this.

As the poison started to slip into his veins, she touched his hand to get his attention, for the first tones of the Moonlight Sonata started to flow from the headphones, distracting him from the growing nausea that accompanied the therapy. "I will be back soon to check on you, okay?"

He smiled again, his too large eyes glinting. "Go and talk to Treize," he said, glancing over her shoulder to where his lover hovered in the corridor behind the window and when their eyes met, he waved a little in reassurance. "Tell him something so that he won't worry, alright? It's hard for him," he added softly, in a sad voice.

As it is for you, Sally thought as she squeezed his hand gently and left him to the dripping infusion and Beethoven.

Headed for the door, she took a deep breath and steeled herself for the questioning that she knew would come as soon as she stepped into the corridor. Treize Kushrenada was a billionaire, a business tycoon and one of the most powerful men in the world. Used to solving problems of international significance before drinking his morning tea, his lover's sickness was taking its toll on him. He couldn't pummel it into the ground, threaten it into submission or buy himself into its graces. He couldn't do anything, just watch the one person he loved above everything in the world suffer.

Every time Wufei had to head to the clinic for his chemotherapy, Treize was there to accompany him. No matter what he was working on, where he had to be or who was waiting for him, he would be there to drive him to the therapy and pick him up again to help him through the weakness and nausea that the poison coursing through his veins caused. Nothing that was happening to Wufei could disgust him or make him turn away. He was there to hold Wufei when he threw up or to wipe his sweaty face, to cuddle him when he was cold or to bring the heat down when fever claimed him. From what Wufei told Sally, Treize was everything a sick person could wish for in his partner. She just hoped that this fairy tale would have a happy end because if not... She didn't even want to think about what would happen.

Sally slid the door open, stepped outside and closed it again. Treize waited for her to approach him. He was leaning against the metal railing running under the window, watching his lover suffer through the therapy with eyes closed, listening to the calming tones of Beethoven's sonatas.

"How is he?" Treize asked in a soft tone when she joined him.

"As expected," she answered evasively.

He frowned and looked at her, his eyes dark and chilly. "If I am to help him, I need answers, Sally. Honest answers. I can't afford to be mollycoddled." His tone was business like, but underneath it, she sensed a true fear.

She sighed, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her white coat. Before she answered, she turned to face her patient through the glass. "We are making good progress. The drastic therapy was a good choice."

"I sense a 'but' in there somewhere," he said.

"Yes, there is a 'but'. The chemotherapy is killing the disease..." She paused, not knowing how to finish her thought.

"But it's killing him too," he added quietly for her.

Sally looked at him and seeing his tortured expression, for a moment she felt the desire to lie. But then thought better of it. A merciful lie would not change anything about Wufei's state of health. "Yes."

Treize swallowed painfully, his face growing paler. He turned back to his lover and pressed his lips firmly together. He didn't ask her if she couldn't do anything more for his lover because he knew that she was doing everything that was in her power.

"Will he... Will..." He couldn't say it.

Sally reached out and laid her hand on the tall man's slumped shoulder. "I don't know. I can't promise you anything. We doctors don't know everything even though we like to pretend as if we do."

With his eyes still on the pale form of his lover, Treize asked. "What can I do?"

"There is nothing more you can do that you aren't already doing," she assured him. "Be there for him, take care of him and hold him when he needs to cry."

For a moment, Treize was silent, watching his lover carefully with sad eyes. When he finally spoke, his voice was hoarse. "I love him, Sally. I couldn't... I can't..." He couldn't finish.

She squeezed his shoulder to comfort the distressed business man.

Then there was a crackle in the hospital radio. _"Doctor Sally Po to emergency room one! Doctor Sally Po to emergency room one!"_

"I have to go," she whispered and waited until the man acknowledged her with a nod. "Try not to worry too much." When Treize snorted, she added: "He senses it and it's putting more strain on him. He has the best medical care and he has you. If there is one chance in hell he will make it, he will. For you and for himself."

Treize looked at her, then smiled a little and squeezed her hand that still lay on his shoulder.

"Will you be alright?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes. I will stay here a moment longer though," he answered, his attention back on his lover again.

Sally Po sighed, her heart aching for them. With a last glance at her patient, resting in the room behind the glass, she turned around and headed for the lift.

The End


End file.
